My Order of the Phoenix Review.

[Ravenclaw Black]

No: HPFGUIDX 77317

Hello everyone,

I finally got around to writing up a review of Harry Potter.  I threw it 
up on my web page ( http://www.colingregorypalmer.net ) and I thought I 
would share it here.  Feedback welcome.


June 25th was a happy day.  I, like uncounted others ran to the post 
office to pick up a copy of a book I had ordered months ago.  Before I 
even handed the postwoman my package slip, she gave me the custom 
amazon.com box.

``I got mine first thing in the morning.''  She said.

``I'm here to pick up my copy too.'' Said the man behind me.

Everyone was friends that day.

I got in my car and literally yelled with unbridled joy.  After 
seemingly endless waiting and repeated delays, \emph{The Order of the 
Phoenix} was finally in my hands.

I tried to spread out the reading, but three days was the best I could do.

I'm sad to report that I was disappointed.  It something was wrong, 
something was different.  I waited until I reread the book at a much 
slower pace before I wrote this review.  I hoped that the speed at which 
I first tore through the book had tainted my opinion.  While it was 
better the second time, I still felt let down.

I am criticizing J. K. Rowling because I love her work so deeply.  I 
spend time thinking about her world; it is precious to me.  I began 
reading the series when I was a freshman in college and thus had empathy 
with Harry.  He was in a new world and so was I.  He was taking magic 
classes, and I was taking the closest muggle equivalent: science.  
Quantum mechanics is the closest I will ever get to apparating, and 
Nuclear physics the closest to transfiguration.

Please keep in mind, when I criticize, it is not because I dislike, but 
because I like the potterverse so much that I have placed expectations 
beyond what anyone could achieve.

Before continuing, I warn you.  This is not so much a review as it is my 
thoughts on the book.  If you have not yet read \emph{The Order}, please 
do not read any farther.  Obligatory spoiler space follows.


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My disappointment began with chapter thirty seven: \emph{The Lost 
Prophesy}.  Within a few moments, we go from believing that an 
invaluable piece of information has been lost forever, to discovering 
that Dumbledore had it the whole time.  He uses the Pensieve to recall 
the words Sibyll Trelawney spoke to him sixteen years ago.

So what was the point?

Why bother guarding the prophecy at all?

Try as I might, I could find no reason given in the text to guard the 
prophecy other than to keep it from Voldemort.  If keeping this 
information from You-Know-Who was so important, why not have Harry 
retrieve it.  Or, if Dumbledore does not yet want Harry to know about 
his future, why not destroy the prophecy?  Harry destroyed hundreds 
during his battle with the death eaters.

I have seen a few good theories proposed by fans as to why the prophecy 
remained in the Ministry of Magic, but they do not satisfy me.  The 
world itself should make sense, and not need outside explanation to keep 
it rational and consistent.  Star Trek fans do their best to concoct 
theories to keep their universe internally logical, but it does not 
change that the world is a mess.  I do not wish to see the potterverse 
take this same direction.

I worry about the size of Rowling's world.  I fear it has gotten larger 
that she can manage.  There are too many spells and magical items 
interacting with one another.  There are many times when magic would 
solve a problem that seems to exist only to advance the plot.

For example, Sirius's confinement to 12 Grimuald Place.  Rowling has 
already shown us a number of ways Sirius could get a breath of fresh air 
or see Harry.  We have invisibility cloaks, polyjuice potions, and 
apparational transport.  Surely a man who had the ability to became an 
animajous at 15, could as an adult, discern a way to move unseen. 
Especially considering he has nothing else to do with his time.  But 
alas, the plot requires he remain indoors, so indoors he stays.

Very little happens in this book.  Sure, Dolourus Umbridge is an 
masochistic, worthless bureaucrat who does her best to bring Hogwarts 
under the control of the ministry.  But does it matter?  No.  She has no 
lasting effect on Hogwarts.  Fudge and the Ministry deny the existence 
of Voldemort, but once again, this is irrelevant.  Voldmort does nothing 
with the time.

I am reminded of the movie version of \emph{The Two Towers}.  Peter 
Jackson added a scene where Aragon is thrown off a cliff edge and the 
audience is lead to believe he has died.  But, sure enough, he show up 
in time for the storming of Helm's Deep.  So why bother with this fake 
death?  It didn't matter.  If he was late for Helm's Deep, then it would 
have made a difference.

The Potter universe is no different at the end of book 5 than it was at 
the end of book 4.

Finally, the big issue: the death of Sirius Black.  Sirius was my 
favorite character in the book.  The series will me much less 
interesting for me to read knowing he is no longer lurking in the 
background as Harry's shadowy protector.  I will miss him.

His death was abrupt and pointless.  That, in itself is not a bad 
thing.  Most death in the world in abrupt and pointless.  We do not all 
get to die heroically and deliver a last speech to our loved ones. 
However, I do not think his death was handled well.  To kill him by 
means of a device we have only just learned about 10 pages previously 
leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  JKR has repeatedly stated in interviews 
that his death is permanent.  He is not coming back.  If this is the 
case, why not kill him in a more 'clearly dead' manner?  Hit him with 
Avanda Kadarvra.  Have him poisoned.  Perhaps a wild hippogryph could 
kill him.  But no.  Poof.  He's dead.  There is no body. 

Very unsatisfying.

I did like that his death was a complicated matter.  Harry Potter and 
Dumbledore are the reasons for Sirius's death.  Dumbledore badly 
misjudges other people.  He ignores Harry and thinks this will have no 
ill effect.  Dumbledore believes Snape, a man who's whole life is driven 
by bitterness, can overlook old grudges.  He also feels thatSnape's 
taunting of Sirius inablitly to help is meaningless to a manconfined to 
his mother's house.  Dumbledore judges people so badly that I can't help 
wonder how well he really understands Tom Riddle.

Harry did not take occlumency lessons seriously even when Black insisted 
that he learn.  Harry's foolishness with Snapes's (sorry 
\emph{professor} Snapes's) pensive, and his refusal to even see what 
Sirius's present was sealed his Godfather's fate.  The most emotional 
moment in the book is when Harry finds the mirror.  He could have 
prevented it all.

While I did love this book for bringing me back into the Widzarding 
World, it has displaced \emph{Chamber of Secrets} as my least favorite 
in the series.  I hope no future book displace this one.